Preparing Your Succession Strategy
Preparing a succession plan can be an intimidating, lengthy and complex process. With many factors to consider, it isn’t always easy to be prepared for company changes, but by being proactive, your business can avoid headaches, drama and potential financial implications of being unprepared when the time comes. Here are some important factors to consider when building your succession strategy.
1. Workforce Planning. When beginning your succession planning strategy, it is vital to start workforce planning based on your identified needs. What are some of the largest challenges that your company is currently facing? As many companies are still feeling the impacts of the great resignation, voluntary turnover has been the number one concern regarding workforce planning for the second year in a row according to AgCareers.com’s annual Agribusiness HR Review survey of agriculture and food employers across the United States. Additional pressures, such as the changing job market, recruitment difficulties and retirements, are also affecting employers in the agriculture and food space.
2. Turnover. As previously mentioned, the impact of the great resignation is continuing to be felt by companies. In 2022, most companies reported that out of all turnover types, there has been an increase in voluntary turnover (employees who choose to leave an organization/company) and a decrease in involuntary turnover. Due to the necessity of keeping their employees, companies reported fewer employer prompted terminations in 2022. When looking at your succession plan, consider how your company will address turnover and what kind of investment you are making in employees to encourage them to stay.
3. Retirement. When developing a succession plan, it’s important to consider the impact of retirement: who will take the lead when it’s time to turn over the reins? Are your recruitment, retention and development plans working toward preparing employees to move up within the organization? After all, when asked by AgCareers.com about how they’re keeping top talent, 67% of ag employers cited better benefits (including retirement benefits) and focusing on their training/development, which in turn, prepares the pipeline for when existing talent retires. It may be wise to reevaluate your strategy for when higher-level talent retires when crafting your succession plan.
4. Talent Management. Talent management and succession planning go hand in hand. Training and development within a company fuels succession planning by ensuring that employees have the skills needed to take on a new role within the organization. As noted from the 2022 Candidate and Employee Benefits survey, a valuable component of any job for employees is having the opportunity to grow through learning and development opportunities. Training and development are also top retention tactics. By providing opportunities to increase employee’s skill level, employers are helping build employee confidence and commitment, decreasing the likelihood of turnover.
Download a free copy of the full AgCareers.com 2022-2023 U.S. Agribusiness HR Review report which includes annual information on salary reviews, employee attrition, workforce trends, professional development, bonuses, recruitment, and more at https://www.agcareers.com/agribusiness-human-resources-review.cfm.
